BOYCOTT & DIVESTMENT
The call to boycott and divest from
Israel is being echoed in many different
spheres and the momentum is
accelerating. Boycott is moving beyond
purely economic terms, to include calls
for academic and other social boycotts,
as a direct consequence of Israeli
policy against Palestinians.
Divestment is the strategic withdrawal
of investment in Israel and in companies
that support and help to uphold the
Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands,
and thus aid the violation of
Palestinian human rights.
Divestment from Israel
Strong calls for divestment have come from Churches in the UK and USA. Divestment, like boycott, aims to put economic pressure on Israel in order to force it to abide by international laws and human rights standards in its dealings with the Palestinians.
Divestment and boycott helped to bring
about peace and freedom for the
oppressed black South Africans. If
successful, divestment would ensure that
the human rights of both
Palestinians and Israelis are upheld.
Israel remains in violation of numerous
international laws and UN Resolutions,
the most serious of which are:-
Resolution 242 calling for withdrawal of
Israeli armed forces • from the occupied
territories.
Israel’s use of torture, which violates
international law.
•The building of settlements in the occupied territories
• breaches the Fourth Geneva Convention provision that “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into territories it occupies” (Article 49, paragraph Resolution 194 requiring Palestinian refugees to either
• be allowed to return to their
former lands or else be compensated for
their losses.
Divestment, as with boycott, is intended
to put pressure on Israel to comply with
these, and other, international legal
obligations.
Divestment by the US Presbyterian Church
In the US, the Presbyterian Church now
targets companies contributing
materially to the Occupation, such as
Caterpillar whose bulldozers have
demolished thousands of Palestinian
homes. The church has a membership of
2.4 million, and the vast majority of
its members favour divestment from
Israel on moral and ethical grounds.
In the UK, the Interfaith Group for
Morally Responsible Investment (IMRI)
called for the Church of England to
divest from Caterpillar, in which it has
approximately £2.2 million invested.
Following the decision made by an
Anglican Parish to divest from the
Central Board of Finance over
Caterpillar shares, Revd Dr Stephen
Sizer said in a statement issued by IMRI:
Western companies are profiting from the
colonisation of Palestine and
construction
of the illegal Separation Wall… We
cannot turn our backs on our sisters and
brothers in Palestine any longer. How
can we profit from policies which we
believe to be both
threatening the viability of a
Palestinian state and also damaging
prospects for peace and security for the
Israeli people?
Academic Boycott of Israel
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights states that “Everyone
has the right to Education”.
Education is the one means by which
Palestinians can escape the poverty that
Israeli occupation has enforced upon
them. While Israelis have access to
educational institutes all over the
world, Palestinians are being denied the
same rights and freedoms, even within
their own territories. Schools and
universities routinely face military
bombardment.
A call to boycott Israeli Academic
institutions is being made world-wide to
put pressure on Israel to abide by its
international obligations and
discontinue its campaign of closures and
curfews, etc., which make educational
continuity impossible for many
Palestinians. Compared to the almost
total shutdown of Palestinian education
as a result of Israeli policies, the
effects of this campaign on Israeli
academic freedom are trivial. However,
the campaign can effectively address the
major issues of a generation of young
Palestinians who are being denied their
right to education.
The recent visit of Danny Ayalon,
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister and
member of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu
party in January 2009 to Oxford
University, is a clear example of the
increasing momentum of the academic
boycott. Ayalon was received with
outrage by the Oxford Students’
Palestine Society as well as other
student groups and local individuals and
was faced with questions and criticisms
over the blockade, house demolitions,
settlement building and Israeli
behaviour during the War on Gaza which
killed 1,387 Palestinians.
Join the
Boycott and Divest Movement:
1. Refuse to participate in official
contacts with Israeli
universities.
2. Refuse to attend conferences in
Israel.
3. Refuse to serve as a referee for
publications submitted from
Israeli institutions.
4. Refuse to act as an external examiner
for degrees conferred
by Israeli institutions.
5. If you choose not to boycott,
challenge Israeli academics on
the issue of the de facto worldwide
academic boycott of the
Palestinians. Ask them what they are
doing to address the
issue.
6. Write to bodies administering grants
in your field letting them
know of your support for Palestinian
education and your
opposition to supporting the Israeli
state in this way.
7. Try to establish collaborations with
Palestinian academics.
When this is prevented, write in protest
to the government of
Israel.
